Ellis Park: Brian Hernandez Jr. collects 1,000th career win

Just two weeks after winning the richest race of his career, jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. hit the 1,000-win milestone Saturday when taking the eighth race aboard Wildandcrazyguy at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky.

Hernandez, 26, won the $750,000 Whitney Handicap on Aug. 4 at Saratoga aboard Fort Larned for the first Grade 1 victory of a career that began in his native Louisiana in 2003.

Hernandez entered the Saturday card at Ellis with 998 wins before capturing the sixth race with Temp. Two races later, he won on Wildandcrazyguy, a 6-1 shot trained by Aaron Shorter.

Hernandez, whose father, Brian Sr., and younger brother, Colby, are active jockeys in Louisiana, has been a regular on the Kentucky circuit while also wintering in Louisiana for most of his career.